My Aurora Hill Memories

There is something magical and mystical about arriving in Baguio, especially after a long spell of an absence. My old schools, the main drag which is Session Road and places where we, in the sixties, made the equivalent of hanging out with friends, the restaurants and snack places where I used to go with family, and braving a visit to the kurba at Magsaysay Avenue, opposite Lucban Elementary School, where I grew up. The house is no longer there: a church stands in its place, but still marvel how much the environment has changed: where mountains used to stand, are now residences, particularly the lower and upper Quirino Hills.

As I take in these places, so familiar and so strange, a tsunami of memories flood my mind. I remembered incidents and people I hadn’t thought of in years, decades even. I thought of things I’d done with my elementary school classmates, with my parents and siblings. How things appear to be much smaller now, or perhaps the world is actually a larger place. My husband and daughter hold very paltry memories of my mother (my father passed away before I was married), and hoping that my childhood memories would be made alive, and breathe life into the static images from old family photographs. I sometimes compare these memories with my brother and three sisters, filling in gaps and differences and in awe of those vivid images that continue to resonate forcefully with us.

My earliest recollections and memory push me back to the house on Rimando Road, which was named Aurora Hill Road during those times. My father came to Baguio as a teacher in Pacdal Elementary School, while my mother started a dry goods business, specializing in extending credit to people who worked in the various mines around Baguio, and which sometimes were cancelled on barter with gold nuggets.

Baguio the pioneer town then, had a number of government- built houses for their employees. In that area of Aurora Hill, there were six which were identical. A drawing number system was set up for allocations. These families were recipients of the six houses: Balagot, Cerezo, Concepcion, Domingo, Floresca, and Jose. Two of these houses were slightly bigger in area, and Mr. Jose and my father, both school teachers, picked the numbers for these houses, and it so happened that these were the last of the two numbers. Later on, my father had the dining room converted into a bedroom and a new dining room and kitchen area were built. Mr. Jose’s house had an open garage where my father used it to park his Model T Ford. The Floresca family included Eddie, husband of Maryann Zarza. Three of us: my two elder sisters and me, were all born in the same bed in the masters bedroom at Aurora Hill with Ms Rosa Caliao, R.N., attending. The bed was built by my father when he was a woodworking teacher in Butuan, Agusan, where hardwood, especially narra was in abundance then.

I cannot really recall that house much, but one of the memories which I cherish was playing with Alma and Marilou Lloren, who also lived in the neighborhood. One of our games with my sister Delia would be to pretend that the city health inspector would be sighted coming up Rimando Road with his black bag, to vaccinate the children who were out playing in the streets. So we would all dive under the narra bed, close our eyes tightly, and let some time pass, at least until after the imaginary health inspector would be on his way to other destinations. Another game was to pretend that a “Busol” was coming up the road: a “Busol” is a local headhunter, where it was still practiced in those times, in some interior areas. “Busol!! Adda Busol nga assideggen!!” Again, we would dive under the bed, close our eyes and fists tightly, and wait.

Another snippet of memory is the Cooperative Sari Sari Store, which I think was on the other side of Rimando Road from us. “Inka gumatang iti asukar idiay Cooperative Store!” or some other needed commodity, was commanded to my elder siblings (I was too young to cross the street.) Years later, I give myself the luxury of a chuckle, when I go shopping into one of the Coop Supermarkets in Geneva (my UN headquarters was located there when I worked for ITC-UNCTAD WTO), automatically comparing the humble corner store with the major Swiss chain (most of the Swiss would say it like “kurp”, no hyphen in Coop).

In 1950, the house at Magsaysay Avenue or Trinidad Road as it was called then, was completed. We moved out of Rimando Road, with our household effects and 25 avocado seedlings which were planted at the new house. If I am correct, the mother avocado tree still stands in Aurora Hill, which is currently occupied by the Romeros. These Aurora Hill avocado trees proliferated, as the family had, but that is another story.

Road construction by Aurora Hill women probably about 1915: photo from: http://adambaguio2009.wordpress.com/2009/07/

The BCHS We Knew: In Colors (by Class 61)

Of the essays being written for this series in a forthcoming issue of the Golden Pine Tree, our class has opted to make up our contribution by describing some of our City High experiences, particularly with specific teachers: in colors. These are our expressions of appreciation.


RED. Ms Maria Montenegro (now Ramirez) is definitely a red: warm, glowing, and stands out in any crowd. Her teaching us Spanish opened to us a language which was strangely familiar and yet not so familiar: conjugating verbs was the painful part, translating phrases was the pleasure, and has further advanced our interest and focus on a culture that we needed to comprehend. Red is the color of toreadors' capes, tomato sauce which is a staple of Spanish cuisine, and, together with yellow, the colors of the Spanish flag.


GREEN. For many of us, connecting green with environmental issues was still latent during our high school days. But certainly the enjoyment of being among thickets of green pine trees, perhaps between the City Auditorium and the high school building, sitting on the spongy needles while doing our reading or crocheting or eating our merienda, was a pleasure which alas has changed: these trees have fast been depleted in the city. We belonged specifically to an age where Baguio as a green belt was a strong given: that no amount of population expansion or "progress" could alter. Our beloved Biology teacher, Mrs. Felisa Beltran, is definitely a green proponent and would make an excellent adviser to the local government on green issues if she is still with us! The sessions of countless practice drawings of hibiscus blossoms were both lessons in art (perspective) and flora structure. The word "Environmentalist" was not yet coined at that time, but she certainly is one.


YELLOW. The late Miss Soledad Blancas was a yellow, for certain: she always had a sunny disposition, made Physical Education and with its attendant activities such as folk dancing, seem fun, fun, fun while learning steps; how to shoulder arms and how to march at the parades we needed to participate in.


BLUE. The demands of studying physics, something we dreaded as we went on from 3rd to 4th year, merits a blue. We all had serious limitations and shortcomings in our physics classes: it was laborious and a hard uphill climb. But we got through, nevertheless, with Mrs. Felisa Penera as our physics teacher, and guided us in the rigors of understanding torques, forces, stress, fulcrum, momentum, and other terms which are now everyday language in our work and play. Still, it was a "hard", as opposed to "soft" subject to tackle, but we had the foresight to get through it one way or the other.

BROWN. History as taught by Mr. Heriberto Mori: the images were in sepia, basic facts like the founding of the United Nations, the North-South conflict of the war over slavery, dates of the Korean War, the Katipunan factions, President Quezon and his passionate stand on independence. Although most of the learning was necessarily by rote, Mr. Mori made history more alive by injecting many of the facts with his own experiences, being a pensionado in the United States for his higher education.


Our class has nearly two hundred members. We will be celebrating our 50th alumni homecoming in 2011. It is perhaps an understatement to say that City High's influence is such that it has helped in conditioning our life activities and opportunities, that we owe so much to our teachers, over these fifty years. We are grateful: for the vivid colors, for the heart-warming memories, and City High's collective mantra of "you can do better", and providing us with rudders as we go on, through 50 years and more, of our existence.


(Note: the limitations of space has prevented us to include more teachers that we would have liked! However, we shall soon be running our own series as well of various stories and anecdotes. We have done one on Miss Valdez and another on Mr Calica. Please visit our blog:
http://bchs61tambayan.blogspot.com/

Arthur B and Rudy L in Toronto

The Toronto chapter of BCHS alumni held a picnic on Saturday 8th August at Mississauga, Ontario. From Class 61, Arthur B and Rudy L attended the event.

In the photo, left to right, standing: Amelia Hamada-Nanni 62, Bill Plank, Genevieve Hamada-Plank 69, Lisa Alebin-Flores, Bernadette Berza, Aurora Rosalin-Alcampo 65, Nonette Andaca-Carrion.
On their knees: Rudy L 61, Joe Barbachano 51, Arthur B 61, Jerrold Pimentel (son of late Jaime Pimentel, P. E.), RoseMarie LaMadrid-Nagallo (daughter of Filipino Teacher and Dept Head, Mrs. LaMadrid).

The suffix numbers are the Class Years, not the ages of the persons!!
Thanks to Art B for the photo, and to Class 62 blog for id'ing the attendants.

Lito Villanueva, our Board Member in IAABCHS

Lito is an active member of the Baguio – Vallejo Sister City Association. He and his wife Mandy helped to host the members of the Baguio delegation when they visited California to look into local governance and economic activities. The development of a portion of the Baguio Botanical Garden as a marker to the ties, similar to the one established in Vallejo, is under way with the recent donation of plants by the Vallejo chapter after fundraising in California.

Our other classmate Vic Pengosro is also involved in this sister-city activities, being a resident of the Bay Area. ( Vic, if you are online, we would love to hear from you!) One other BCHS alumnus who traces his roots to Baguio, is Marciano Paynor Jr.,(BCHS '76?) the consul general at the Philippine Consulate Office in San Francisco and PMA graduate, and active with the Baguio Californians.

Back to Lito: The following is excerpted from the IAABCHS Bulletin:

WARLITO L. VILLANUEVA, '61, BOARD MEMBER, traveled the information highway via the fast developing technology from the analog to the digital. Starting at the University of Baguio where he got his training in Radio-Electronics he worked with ABS-CBN, Kanlaon Broadcasting Corp. and the Lepanto Mining Corporation. In Michigan, Palo Alto, and the Alameda Naval Station, he continued working on electronics. He finally retired after working at the Department. of Justice INS-US Border Patrol, in California for 8 years. Warlito is active in volunteer community service: the FIL-Am Contra Costa County, Baguio -Vallejo Sister-City Association, Phil. Basketball and bowling associations. He is married to Mandy Austin. They have 3 children and one grandchild.

Lito, I hope you would be able to send in a recent photo: we’d all like to visualize you accurately!

What is the TPLEX Project?

TPLEX, the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Toll Expressway (TPLEX) is being built by Private Investment Development Corporation (PIDC), a consortium. This is an 88-kilometer highway project that will link Metro Manila to northern parts of Luzon, passing through Tarlac, Tarlac, Gerona, Paniqui, Moncada, Carmen, Urdaneta, Pozorrubio and Rosario.

PIDC is composed of Lopez-led First Balfour, plus other private sector construction companies. San Miguel Corp., which has 35 percent interest in the project, is looking at increasing its stake to 51 percent. The Philippine Government also has a major stake in the project.

This improvement of the highway will certainly cut the travel time from Metro Manila to Baguio and will run parallel to MacArthur Highway, the North Road.

For details of the project, click on:

http://uactphilippines.org/images/stories/uact/media/november/tlutepcci_presentation.pdfhttp://uactphilippines.org/images/stories/uact/media/november/tlutepcci_presentation.pdf

Mr. Hipolito Calica: Math Teacher Extraordinaire

(Note: this article was prepared for the forthcoming issue of Golden Pine Tree). By Evelyn Domingo-Barker ‘61

Neatly dressed, with a carefully - combed moustache, Mr. Hipolito Calica, with his highly-strict style and no-nonsense guidelines (take no prisoners, make no zeros in tests) would forever be riveted in one’s memory. Take this: That dreaded passing down of test results (the rustling of papers in the quiet of the classroom) always lay dark clouds over our heads, butterflies in our stomachs, and nervous jiggling of the knees just below the school desk.

It was the classroom equivalent of battles fought. Mistakes in calculations were akin to the slaughter of soldiers. An anticipated loud roar of exploding cannon sounded, with a grade below 75% . An imagined thunderous noise suddenly stops short in front of our eyes when one sees a passing grade marked on one’s test paper, then a thudding migraine and an erratic heartbeat would vanish. To make things more suspenseful, the test papers were handed from the highest to the lowest scores. The only audible cry of relief that breaks the dead silence would be “haaay, matay acc- con!” from Marlo P as she gets a midway grade.

And those nerve-wracking surprise quizzes! Never on ¼ sheet, it was always on ½ sheet of paper. We would huddle on our way home whispering and strategizing how to cheat! (nil) He was too clever to know all the tricks up students’ sleeves. Imagine him spew out “TONTO!” should you slip up on a sentido común question! His high octane super- grade ‘BOLSHEVIK YOU!” would reduce your height standing to a quarter of an inch low and you’d be seen slinking under your rock, making you brain-dead the rest of the day. And those no- nonsense eyes would pierce your numb brain to kingdom come.

And for us who even ventured further on Sunday mornings as the upper class high school Sunday School at the UCCP - students included Angel Bangaoet, Pastor Frank, Joselito C, Gloria R, Diana B, Emil A, Nora C, MaryAnn Z, Jaimelita and Sarah T, plus some others - what iron will drove us to this? Sunday School was conducted in the same exact manner as his Math class: always prepared, well thought-out, a clear message of “groping in the dark, you will find hope” and a strong feeling that you must study your Math notes and Bible at home to match his illumination.

Such was the effect that Mr. Hipolito Calica had on us for two years. We had a superb math teacher and a moral compass who gave us his full attention, on minds that were progressively developing. That was “tough love”! He set high standards for us to be tested over and over. Flashbacks of schoolroom lessons in math find their way almost automatically today, as one exchanges pesos into dollars into kips, or substituting x’s and y’s in project budget preparation, the sine/ cosine, tangents or hypotenuse of our social relationships. It has helped us search for excellence in our future fields. Sadly, such standards have not spread out broader. Otherwise, what an unsurpassed Republic of the Philippines we would be, relative to our neighbors in economic, political and cultural endeavors.

This gentleman from Bauang, dressed in a chamois jacket - baseball style with ribbed cuffs, waistband and collar: I believe he had two sets: a burnt orange and a mustard color - locked us well into the pursuit of excellence.

Evelyn Domingo-Barker ‘61 attended the University of the Philippines, and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. She recently retired from the United Nations after assignments at the World Bank; the Middle East, Africa and Asia with the last post of Chief: United Nations Information Services, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in Bangkok.

"Tampuhan" by Juan Luna, 1895

In an earlier post about Pilipino, I found at that site my favorite painting by a Filipino artist. I first saw it in a coffee table book many years ago at a friend’s house in Manila. It is entitled “Tampuhan”. It appeals to me because of the composition and theme: the yesteryear way of formal dressing, the highly-polished hardwood floors, balcony posts, capiz windows, lots of warm light. The pair seems to be in an uncommunicative mode. Juan Luna was one of those artists whose genius-mind was way off: he killed his wife and mother-in-law, bipolar ngata iso, a. The poet Marne Kilates has written a lovely poem about this painting, with the first two parts quoted below: http://nameabledays.jimdo.com/tampuhan.php

Was it a time of grace, of smooth
And even things? How long ago
Was it, how far away that seldom
We make a visit, even in our dreams?

Sun on the floor of a varnished afternoon
Before Christmas, lace on the pasamano,
Curve of elbow under gossamer sleeve,
Hand as delicate, missing its abanico...

If Juan Luna were to paint this in 2009, the setting would probably reflect a minimalist taste for furniture and housing material: glass, metal, black would abound. The lass would be curled up in a highback asymmetrical three-legged rattan chair with a Baguio pink stone base, dressed in a striped Benetton shirt, Gloria Vanderbilt skinny jeans and Jimmy Choo slingbacks, the chap in a Yankees baseball cap with the visor on the side, camouflage shorts, black sando, Adidas chinelas, silver hoops, and more interested in the three chikas across the street at Condo II. Oh well, times do change. But the churning emotions that the Maria Clarita (1895) and the Marie-Claire (2009) ladies, respectively, would probably be still the same. Agpaspasugnod. There. That sounds deeper than Nagtatampo!
I'd love for Salvacion F-G to do a painting, along these lines!

Share your favorites! Paintings, pets, grandkids, books, whatever. With or without links to our high school yesteryears!